


Graze

by Lightning_Zombie



Series: Zombie Apocalypse MCYT [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Blood, Gen, Guns, Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Amputation, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Swearing, Zombies, axes, bullet wounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29364723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightning_Zombie/pseuds/Lightning_Zombie
Summary: Niki was never a good shot.Fundy was never a coward.Techno was never a good uncle.///Rated teen for violence and swearing.This is a sequel to Death of the Family! Read that before this one to get the full context :)
Series: Zombie Apocalypse MCYT [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2156715
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	Graze

**Author's Note:**

  * For [l3lackbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/l3lackbird/gifts).



> Hello again! Okay, so, Death of the Family wasn't meant to have a sequel, but l3lackbird (cool name, by the way) left a super lovely comment with some head canons and I... have very little self control. I wrote this at 2am.
> 
> So, for you, my friend. Thank you for the inspiration! I heard you like how I write Fundy :)
> 
> Trigger warnings in the tags! Please read them before reading the fic, I don't want anyone getting upset by my content <3 
> 
> If you think more tags should be added, please let me know.
> 
> ///
> 
> This is a work of fiction about my interpretation of the persona's of CC's, not the CC's themselves. Do not repost my fics to other sites. Do not send my fics to CC's. If you're a CC, in the nicest way possible, go away. This is for the fans.

Niki, in her own words, is a fucking terrible shot. 

She just can't get the hang of using a gun. Hours spent with Eret in the armoury, trying to hit the targets with BB guns, achieved nothing. They can't afford to use the precious little ammo they have, so air rifles are the next best thing. Something in Niki won't let her hit a headshot. Maybe it's the half-finished nursing degree, maybe it's refusing to become hardened to the world like her friends, but she simply cannot hit her shot. 

When Techno tells her to shoot Fundy, she does it. She aims the pistol, and she fires once. The bullet hits him. 

Well. It grazes him. 

Fundy wakes up with blood drying on his face. His head hurts, his vision spins, his dry throat scratches. He can barely open his eyes as he struggles into a sitting position. The door is still closed but the shelf that kept it closed is gone, knocked over onto the ground. Unlike the cacophony of noise that emanated from outside when Fundy fell into a restless sleep, everything is silent now.

The room blurs around him as his head throbs again. Fundy whines and looks down towards his feet. Auntie Niki lies before him, curled in on herself, face covered by red-streaked blonde hair. A dark pool spreads around her. 

"Auntie?" Fundy asks, crawling towards her with the little energy he has. She doesn't wake up. Strange; Niki is a light sleeper, will wake for anything. He shoves her shoulder and she falls back, revealing the bullet wound in her head. Fundy screams and scrambles backwards into the wall. His vision clears somewhat, and he can see the full extent of the horror surrounding him. 

Phil lies with eyes open and glassy, blood dripping down his face, collapsed across Tubbo and Tommy. Wilbur sits where they left him the night before, slumped over on the bench. Techno is gone. Fundy sobs and clutches his rucksack to his chest. 

"Uncle Techno?" He calls, but no response. Of course not. Techno is probably dead too. 

Fundy cries for a little while before thirst and hunger get the better of him. He rummages through everyone's bags. No one had much left, but it's worth a shot. He finds three half empty water bottles, a stuffed cow toy belonging to Tommy, a first aid kit, two granola bars and Wilbur's old beanie. Fundy pulls the latter over his red hair. It feels familiar, safe. He looks at his dad again, and swallows down the tears. 

He touches the side of his head. The blood dried while he slept, but his head still throbs. Whatever hit him only left a stinging flesh wound. Was it a bullet? Did someone shoot him? He looks down at the mattress he slept on. There's a hole that wasn't there when he went to sleep. 

Was it Uncle Techno? Why?

Fundy rummages through the first aid kit until he finds some alcohol wipes and bandages. 

_You gotta keep it clean, or you'll get an infection._ Niki scolds in the back of his mind. It's the repeat of a previous conversation, had months ago. He fell off the ladder leading up to the wall while trying to visit his dad. Not a hard enough fall to do any serious damage but enough for uncle Tommy to scoop him up and carry him to the infirmary. 

Niki taught him how to look after the wound himself, so he wouldn't have to come back to her. _You're thirteen now, hm? You can start helping out more, yknow. Maybe Eret will let you help count the ammo._

Fundy never did get to ask Eret if he could help. The QZ burned down two days later. 

He patches up the head wound, wrapping a bandage around his head to keep the gauze in place. There, that’ll do until he can find someone to help him fix it properly. If he ever finds anyone else. His head still hurts but they're out of painkillers, so he just has to deal with it. He cleans the blood of his face with one of the water bottles. 

After he's drunk another of the water bottles and eaten a granola bar, Fundy packs everything else, along with one of the empty pistols, into his rucksack. He pauses when he picks up the cow plushie, debating whether to take it or leave it with Tommy.

_I know it's just a toy._ Tommy mumbled, two days before… all this. He had a fight with the adults about unnecessary baggage and came to Fundy's corner of the room for refuge. _But it's_ **_Henry_** _. He's been with me forever, before all this. You’'e gotta keep something of the past, even if you can't go back to it. Memories are all we have left._

Fundy stuffs the toy into his bag and pulls his dad's hat tighter on his head. He looks around at everyone else. Before long, he's got Niki's necklace, Tubbo's neckerchief, and Phil's wrist band. He tries not to look at the bullet wounds as he collects the items. He fails.

Fundy creeps towards the door. He pulls it ajar and peeks out. The shop floor before him is deserted, and silent. Fundy bites his lip and risks opening the door more. It creaks, but nothing stirs. 

Despite being left out here in the chaos, there's no sign of Eret. That thought leaves a horrible lump in Fundy's throat. He's not alive, there's no chance. But he's gone. It's unlikely anyone else moved him. He walked away, much less than alive.

A trail of blood leads to the entrance of the store, and Fundy follows it without thinking. Once he's out on the street, he takes a breath of fresh air. The breeze floats through the trees, blowing an empty packet across the road. A windchime rattles in the distance, birds chirping along in rhythm. 

The horde appears to have moved on. Fundy can't hear any sign of the undead. He has good ears. His dad told him that. _That's one of your best assets. You don't need to be good at fighting if you know how not to get into fights in the first place. Listen, wait, and never be afraid to run if you think that's the best option._ Fundy sniffs. He wants nothing more than to hear his dad's voice again. But that isn't an option right now. His best option is to run.

An axe lies abandoned in the middle of the pavement. Fundy picks it up and holds it experimentally. Ant had one of these, or one similar. He let Fundy have a go with it once, under watchful supervision and the promise not to tell his dad. Kids weren't meant to have weapons unless it was extreme circumstances. Velvet set up some training dummies so Fundy could practice hitting zombies with it. He thinks he remembers how to use it. It's better than an empty gun. 

Fundy isn't sure exactly which way he should go. The blood trail leads one way, which implies the horde went that direction, and Fundy doesn't particularly want to see them again. They chased him out of his old home, now he needs to find a new one.

_Climb._ His granddad would say, sitting in a tree as Fundy scrambles after him. _If you're lost, get to a high point and see if you recognise anything. That way you’ll be safe, too._

Fundy scales one of the buildings using an external fire ladder that's worryingly unstable. He whimpers whenever rust flakes off the creaking rungs, but he makes it to the top unscathed. Once he's on the roof, he looks around and realises he does know where he is. 

His dad used to bring him here, to the ice cream place on the corner. Not that that’s any good to him now, he doubts the zombies are selling milkshakes. But it does mean he knows how far he is from the QZ, and which way he has to go in order to reach the next one. 

Sure, he won't know where to go once he reaches the countryside, but he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it. 

He'll be alright on his own. He's thirteen, after all, old enough to take care of himself. Not too old to stop crying himself to sleep while clutching Tommy's old plushie, though. He doesn't sleep much, if at all. His dreams consist of horror, flashes of all the people he had to watch die. Ranboo, Scott, Bad, Eret, Wilbur. Why does he have to remember them like that? 

_We remember the bad because it affects us more than the good._ Tubbo said, cradling Fundy gently. Two years ago, right after the outbreak happened and they reached the QZ, Fundy started having nightmares. He didn't want to tell his dad, so he went to his uncle's room instead. Tommy was out cold, but Tubbo was still up, watching the stars. _What you've gotta remember is, more good always comes along. There's always more good to come._

Fundy isn't sure how true that is anymore, but he wants to believe it. God, he wants to.

He travels, moving towards the place his dad told him they were headed when the horde caught up to them. Another QZ, still standing, apparently. Hopefully. 

He sees no other humans. Once he reaches the countryside, he sticks to the tree lines. There's plenty of zombies, including another horde in the middle of a field. Most of the time, he runs into the woods where it's easier to hide but harder to move. Sometimes he can't run fast enough, and he hacks them to death with his axe. He's not good with it at first, his muscles ache, but after a while, he gets better. He doesn't think he'll ever be as good as Ant. Or anyone that died fighting for him.

Scavenging for food alone is tough, but once he reaches the countryside it's easier. Techno taught him how to hunt, how to move quietly through the trees and sneak up on your prey. _The secret is patience._ Techno whispers as they sit in the bushes watching for deer. It took a lot of convincing, but Wilbur eventually let Fundy go into the woods with his uncle. _That's why your dad is so bad at this. He rushes into everything. But me and you, Buddy, we wait, like alligators waiting for prey._

Fundy is a little bit too clumsy, and too hungry to be patient, but he catches a rabbit or two and it keeps him going for a few days.

He reaches a cottage after a few days of travelling in the woods, one that looks long abandoned in the setting sunlight. A smashed in window leaves glass all over the garden, debris litters the grass. Fundy decides it's as good a place as any to crash. He's not eaten yet today, and he's almost out of water. Sleep sounds so good. 

He sneaks in through the back door, axe in hand, listening for any sign of infected. A creak comes from behind him, and Fundy whips around to face his attacker when- 

"Fundy?" A familiar voice asks. It's Karl, wearing an oversized hoodie and wielding a shotgun. "What the fuck, you're alive?"

"Karl?" Fundy hasn't seen him since the night Karl and Quackity snuck out of the QZ, taking Niki's gun with them. He has half a mind to be mad about that, but the other half is just confused. "Wh-"

Before Fundy can finish his question, Karl drops his shotgun on the kitchen table and pulls Fundy into a hug. "I thought you were dead! I thought- guys!" Karl yells and Fundy shushes him on instinct. 

Quackity comes barrelling into the kitchen and swears in Spanish when he sees the boy in Karl's arms. Someone else comes up behind Quackity, taller, hair pink at the very ends, and missing his left arm just below the elbow. 

"Buddy?"

It's Techno. 

"Uncle Techno?" Fundy sobs. Techno runs over to pull his nephew into a one-armed hug. "They're dead! Everyone's dead, I-"

"I know, I'm sorry-"

Fundy clings to his uncle and shakes him. "I thought you were dead too!"

"Hey, hey, it's alright, shush." Techno guides Fundy into a bedroom away from the other two, who exchange a concerned glance. Techno never told them exactly what happened to his family, just that they all died. "Come on, sit down."

"Did you kill everyone?" Fundy asks quietly as they sit on the bed. He isn't a stupid child. He knows how five bodies and a missing brother looks. 

"I... I thought we were all gonna die. I was putting you out of your misery, so you didn't have to face the horde. I didn't- if I knew you were still alive, I would've come right back for you." Techno sighs. "Niki is _such_ a bad shot."

_Niki_ shot him? She wouldn't unless… unless there really wasn't another option. Did she miss on purpose? Fundy shivers. "How'd you get past them?"

"I didn't intend to. I guess I have more will to live than I thought. Just... kept fighting. Took all my anger out on whatever I could reach. When I lost my axe, I just used my hands. That's how this happened." Techno wiggles what's left of his arm. "Before I knew it, I’d escaped."

"You cut off your own arm?" Fundy asks, horrified. He'd traveled for days before he reached this cottage, unless Karl and Quackity found him, Techno would've been on his own.

"With an incredibly blunt knife." Techno laughs, then sighs when he realises it isn't funny. "I should've died. I wanted to die. I still-" He stops himself. 

"But you didn't. And neither did I." Fundy snuggles into his uncle. Techno doesn't respond.

It's a horrible situation. Techno made a decision that turned out to be wrong. Not alone, Phil and Niki must have agreed to it. Fundy is angry, and he thinks he has a right to be. They gave up on him. They gave up on themselves. The fury stewed in the back of his mind all week, just behind the pure survival instinct that kept him going. But now he's sat here with his uncle, Fundy knows Techno regrets it. He truly believed he was right, but he wasn't. He made a mistake, a monumental one, but he's sorry. Techno doesn't have to say it. Fundy knows.

Fundy doesn't know what to say, so he tells the truth. "I forgive you, I think."

"No, you don't." Techno shakes his head. "Buddy, I don't deserve to be forgiven. My whole family is dead because of me. I messed up, by being alive I failed in what I intended to do."

"I don't think being alive is a failure. Sometimes that's all you can do, right?"

"I guess. I'm sorry, kid." Techno wraps his arm around Fundy and kisses him on the top of the head. "You have your dad's beanie, huh?"

"I couldn't leave it behind." Fundy reaches into his bag and pulls out Henry. "I thought you might… want this. Well, I wanted it, but now I know you're alive, he was your brother."

Techno takes the plush and sets it on his lap. "Tommy loved this thing. I had… I had one, a wolf that I never went back for. Did you get anything else?"

"These." Fundy pulls up his sleeve to show the wrist band and pulls Niki's necklace from under Tubbo's neckerchief. "I wanted something from everyone, y'know. To keep them with me."

"You've grown up a lot in a week." Techno picks up the axe that Fundy had dropped beside him. "This is the one I had when I escaped."

"I found it when I left the store."

Techno turns it over in his hands. "You know how to use it?"

"I do now." Fundy smiles. 

Techno grins. "You must be hungry."

"You bet I am." Fundy touches his stomach subconsciously. 

Techno pats his shoulder and stands up. "C'mon. Karl has a garden here. We can stay."

"Forever?" Fundy hurries after him.

"I hope so, kid. I hope so."

**Author's Note:**

> Uncle Techno supremacy.
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated!


End file.
